I think it’s interesting that you thought this photo of someone dressed in a carnival-type outfit was an appropriate image to accompany an article about trans women getting mainstream employment. Nice way to trivialize the article. And yes, I agree with Megan that labeling trans people as though customers have a right to know their trans status is no step forward… it’s exploitation.

The article really isn’t clear on the bathrooms as to whether it was the trans people who wanted the bathrooms or the other students it could be a bad thing as you suggest or in fact a positive thing which is showing support and adaption.

As for the badges I am not sure what the purpose is but from speaking to some people who have lived in Thailand, Trans people are not generally picked on so I think it is more of a positive thing again. ie you can tell the gender of the other staff by their clothes and as they regard trans as a 3rd sex they are simply distinguishing it too.

The reasons why trans people become transgender in Thialand is not always the same reasons as here, many do see themselves as a sex apart from male/female and Thai’s historically believe the 3rd sex has existed from creation. At 200,000 Thailand has the largest 3rd sex population in South East Asia.

They may well just be culturaly different from our trans population so the same rules and needs may not apply.

A quick trawl through other reports throws up that badges are as much to do with identifying their sex for immigration.

Dave… in reality other than being in beauty pageants, shop girls and in nightclubs, trans women in Thailand are NOT treated well. They are completely unable to change their national ID, birth certificates, cannot marry a man (if they so choose), and are locked out of most educational and job opportunities. Some trans women in Thailand consider themselves 3rd gender (as do some in the west) but many don’t. They often identify themselves as women (while some ID as Sao Prophet Song… ‘women of the second type’). Yes, there are cultural differences, but just because a given culture (with its own unique oppression different from our forms of oppression) states that trans women aren’t women doesn’t mean that’s automatically okay. How about allowing individual trans people to ID themselves as third gender (or not), or don’t you think they should have that right?

Let’s hope they’ll be appreciated for their service and that they won’t be bothered by boozed-up homophobes. I used to have a couple of katoeys – is the therm pejorative or not – as neighbours. I’m sure they were working girls, but they could be very sweet. People like that deserve a life, just like the rest of us.

In one sense this sounds wonderful, opening doors for employment, making sure people who find it hard to find a variety of non-entertainment, non-sex-work jobs can do so.

But why the specialised name tags? That gives me pause and it flags, as others above have noted, an air of exploitation. Does the airline really care to enact a form of affirmative action in the workplace? Or are they trying to get publicity and capitalise on the sensationalism?

Sexual impurity is a given in our culture. In the Levitical law, God prohibits homosexuality and bestiality.In many sexual perversions, such as pornography, bisexuality, homosexuality, bestiality, and even more depraved things of which it is disgraceful even to speak

However, it is also clear that the body is cursed, Gen. 3:16-19. Man’s rebellion brings down God’s wrath, Rom. 1:18-19. Work, childbirth, and other activities are made painfully difficult due to His curse. Bodies do experience degenerative processes. Ultimately, they die. Genetically, we suffer the effects of the fall. Diabetes and other diseases are the result of our rebellion. Genetic failures result in bodily problems that influence sexuality. For example, the morphological differentiation of the genitalia, due to X-Y chromosomal defects, does not always progress according to the normal ordained pattern.

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